Player profile

Keane is the current record goalscorer of Republic of Ireland. He was Britain's most expensive teenager when Coventry paid Wolves £6 million in 1999 and has a total cost of £74 million in transfer fees. He started his career at Wolverhampton Wanderers in 1997 where he scored 29 goals in 87 games during his two-years stay in the First Division. Keane only played one year at Premier League's Coventry before a surprising move to Internazionale for £13 million. He had a torrid six months there as he fell out of favour when Italy's world cup winning coach, Marcello Lippi, who had brought him there, was sacked and replaced by Marco Tardelli. His escape from Italy was David O'Leary's Leeds. However he struggled for form as well as his teammates after Leeds, who reached the 2001 Champions League semi-finals, were facing a financial disaster. Keane was a number of Elland Road stars who were sold to pay off debts. He was only 22-years-old, but Spurs was his fourth club. During his six years at White Hart Lane, Keane consistently finished his first four seasons as one of the club's top scorers. In each of his last two seasons he went past the 20 goal mark and became the thirteenth player to score one hundred Premier League goals, on Boxing Day 2007.

Keane is well known for scoring great goals as well as being a goal creator and no doubt Rafa hoped that Fernando Torres would benefit from being his strike partner as Dimitar Berbatov did. His former manager at Tottenham, Martin Jol, was very surprised when Spurs decided to sell him to Liverpool in the summer of 2008: "He symbolised Spurs. He was the most influential player in the dressing room. I really thought Robbie Keane would have stayed there for the rest of his career." Great things were expected of Keane and he was a regular starter in the early weeks of the season but his first Liverpool goal did not arrive until 1 October in his eleventh first-team appearance after 688 minutes without scoring, in the home Champions League fixture against PSV Eindhoven. Just like Peter Crouch three years earlier, he just couldn't find the net in a Premier League match; and that situation lasted until West Bromwich Albion came to Anfield on the second weekend in November, when he scored twice. Keane got another brace against Bolton on Boxing Day as well as a superb equaliser at Arsenal just before Christmas. On the final day of the January transfer window Keane signed for Spurs for significantly less than Liverpool had paid six months earlier. Many believed former Liverpool Chief Executive, Rick Parry, had initially bought Keane, but Rafa later put that straight, saying he wanted Keane and he hadn't been certainly forced upon him. Rafa said that simply as "a good player sometimes cannot perform in a different team."

Keane's second spell at White Hart Lane was not a particularly happy one. He added only another eleven League goals by the time another January transfer-window opened in 2010. Keane moved on loan to Celtic until the end of the 2009/10 season where he scored 12 times in 16 league games and added another four goals in three Scottish cup matches. Despite being at Celtic Park for a relatively short period of time, he had created enough of an impact to be voted the Fans' Player of the Year. West Ham signed Keane on loan from Spurs in January 2011 until the end of the season. The Hammers had an option to extend his stay by two years if they avoided relegation. However, the Hammers were indeed relegated so Keane returned to Tottenham after scoring twice in nine Premier League matches during his brief stay. Keane was on the move again in August 2011, signing a two-year deal with Los Angeles Galaxy. In January 2012 Keane joined the claret and blue of Aston Villa on a two-month loan from Galaxy, scoring three times in six Premier League matches. On his return to Los Angeles he won the MLS title.